The Darkest Hour
by LifetimeTwilightLov
Summary: A new detective comes to the SVU and people question her ability to handle the victims. How will she handle it? And what will happen when their biggest case is taken to court? Will she unravel when her best secret is revealed?
1. First Day

Disclaimer: Don't own Law and Order: SVU or its characters. Others, I do own.

Chapter 1: First Day

Lace Roberts burst out of the bathroom, dressed in only her bra and a pair of skinny jeans. She jumped on the bed, where her husband Howard slept soundly. He groaned lightly, squinting up at her. "What time is it?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Little after eight. The kids have day care and you're going to be late for work again."

Howard groaned and rolled over, pulling the blanket over his head. Lace rolled her eyes. "Honey! I can't take them today. I start work, remember?"

"Shit... What time do I have to be at work?"

"Nine." Lace smiled, pushing her bangs from her eyes. "You have to take the kids in twenty minutes."

"When do you start work?" Howard asked, putting an arm around her. "Do we have time?"

Lace smacked him, but she couldn't stop the smile. "No, we don't! Come on. Get up. Breakfast is ready already. The kids are ready. You just have to get out of bed and ready. If you really need me to, I guess I can take them, but I'd have to hurry and the downtown traffic's always bad around this time of day."

"No. No. I'll take them." Howard rolled out of bed and dragged her with him to the bathroom. "You need to finish getting ready. Unless you've decided to go to work looking like that. And I wouldn't blame you."

Lace glared at him. "Can you toss me my blue shirt? It's by the shower, honey."

"Don't yell at me! I just woke up."

"I'm not yelling. Just do it. And hurry up because I can't leave until you're out of the shower."

"What's the rush? I thought you said you wanted to walk into work a few minutes late acting drunk?"

"I was a little wasted when I said that, dear. Now go!" She gave him a small shove towards the shower and threw a towel at the door once it was shut.

"What time do you get off tonight, baby?"

"Seven, I think. Depends on what happens. Why?"

"Thought we could drop the kids off at your mom's and we could go out for a little while. We haven't been out alone in forever. We could reserve a hotel room for the night. I'm sure your mom won't mind, seeing how close you two are."

"Sounds great," Lace muttered, not having paid much attention to what he had said.

"Baby, what's that about?"

"Howard, I'm in a hurry already. Please, get out here and take the kids to day care!" Lace put her hair into a pony tail and left the bathroom. She found her two children, three year old Mark and nine month old Joy, in the living room playing. "Hey! You all ready to go, Mark?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, find Daddy's bag for him, please. I've gotta go as soon as he comes out of the shower. Be good." She kissed them quickly. She was in the bedroom putting on her shoes when Howard walked out of the bathroom, drying his hair. "Okay, I'm going. Your bag and their bag is by the door. Don't get them mixed up," she joked, standing. She kissed him.

"What's the hurry? I checked your schedule. You don't start for another forty-five minutes."

Lace smiled a bit. "You have to get ready for work now. You don't have time for that, even if I did." She kissed him once more. "Take the kids to day care!" She grabbed her purse and ran out of the house. Her first day at work and she probably would already be late. She knew she had neglected Howard. Having been a stay at home mom for the past few years since they had Mark, she was able to tend to his every need, whatever he needed, whenever he needed it. But she didn't have time that morning. Her first day at work, and it wasn't at some cheap fast food restaurant where everyone or nearly everyone was late. She had to get down to the police station and right away.

Backing out of the drive way, she let out a sigh. _What's the hurry? _she asked herself. She didn't need to hurry that much. She had forty five minutes and work was only twenty away. Reaching the first stop light, she pulled out her cell phone. She knew Howard wouldn't get it until he was at work, but she didn't care. _I'll see you tonight at seven. I'll pick up the kids, drop 'em off at Mom's. Love you! _She sent the text quickly and put her phone away.

When she reached the police station, she was only minutes early, having had to take two detours to avoid traffic. She ran up the stairs, thinking to herself she should've taken the elevator. _Hell, it's good exercise at least, _she thought, rolling her eyes at herself. But she arrived just in time.

"Captain," she said, smiling at Captain Donald Cragen. She had known him for years since her father had worked with him at Homocide for years.

"Don't get formal. We're old friends. Everyone, this is our new detective Lace Roberts."

Lace smiled, seating herself at the open desk.

"I was just telling them we have a new case, just called in. Sixteen year old rape victim. She's at the hospital now," Donald continued.

Lace and her new partner Detective Fin Tutuola stood to take the case. Fin drove. "So... How long have you worked here?" she asked to end the awkward silence and to distract herself on how sick his driving made her.

"Long enough to know it's not easy."

"So why are you still here?"

"You'll find out when you meet our victim."

Lace frowned, but shrugged. They were already at the hospital. "Room seven, down that hall," the secretary told them before they could announce what they were doing. Lace looked at the girl, sixteen years old, covered in bruises, and crying.

"I told you not to call the cops!" she yelled.

Lace glanced at Fin, who looked ready for an attack. She couldn't help glaring at him. "Hey. If we can't work together as a business arrangement, can we still be friends?" she said quietly. "I'm Lace."

"Why would I want to be friends with you?"

"I don't know. But we're alike. We're both young women, in a cruel world. We're sitting here having a cop look at us like we're crazy," Lace said, grinning up at Fin. "From that poster right there, I guess we both like rock. We're both stubborn, defiant, maybe a little pissed off at the world right now. We could be good friends, you know."

The girl sniffled, looking up at Fin. "I'm Abby," she said quietly.

"It's nice to meet you. What else do you like? You have a boyfriend yet?"

Abby nodded hesitantly.

"What's his name?"

"Sam."

"Bet he's about the hottest boy in school, right? Most popular, especially if he's with a pretty girl like you."

"Not really. He's hot, yeah, but he doesn't go to my school."

"Oh. That sucks! What bands do you like?"

"Lots of 'em."

"You know what. I have the new Coldplay CD in my car actually. Brand new, not even open. You want it? My husband got me a second copy, not knowing I had already ordered it."

"What's his name?"

"Howard."

"Is he a cop too?"

"No! No. He's a chef. Cooks these really romantic meals all the time. He's a sweetie."

"What's he do?"

"Oh. Let's see. He puts the kids to bed early so we can have time alone, while I'm off with friends or whatever. Then when I come home, he has the best food laid out, candles, rose peddles, bubble bath, whatever a woman could ever want."

Abby sniffled again, falling silent. She looked down at her hands. Lace noted that she obviously bit her nails. "I was walking home from a party. He jumped me, put me in this car. He drove me to an old warehouse. It was empty, besides a bed. And then he... ya know."

Lace nodded. "Can you describe him?"

Abby shook her head, fresh tears falling. "I-I can't."

"Okay. Okay. That's okay! Can you describe the car?"

"Grey Ford Focus. My boyfriend's into cars. He always tells me what all of them are."

Lace smiled a bit. "That's good. Can you tell me where you were when he grabbed you?"

"Some enter section on 7th."

"Do you know where the warehouse was?"

"Somewhere in Queens. I couldn't see."

"Why not?"

"He had me tied down, with my eyes covered."

"What did he use to tie you down?"

"A bike chain, I think. Some kind of chain." Abby sniffled again. "He had long hair. I think he was Latino. I'm not sure though. It sounded like he had an accent. Brown eyes, tall, kinda big."

"How tall?"

"Maybe six foot."

"And how 'kinda big'?"

Abby smiled a bit. "I dunno. Maybe 230 pounds... He kept saying something in Spanish. I don't know what it means."

"Can you remember what he said?"

"Not really. I tried to block him out. Can we be done? I can't do this right now."

Lace nodded. "One more question and then we'll be done for now. Did he use a condom?"

Abby shook her head. "What am I going to tell my parents? I'm a virgin! They'll think I slept with Sam and just decided to make up this story to get away with it! Please, don't tell them."

"The hospital already did. But we can make sure they know that you're not making this up. Okay?" Lace smiled gently. "We're gonna be outside. Here's my cell number. It's on all the time. You can call me if you ever need anything, okay?"

"Lace? How old were you when you got married?"

"I was sixteen actually. I got pregnant and we ended up having a miscarriage."

"Do you have kids now?"

"Two. Another on the way."

"Do you think I'll get pregnant?"

Lace frowned. "I'm gonna stay with her for a while," she told Fin, and made him leave. "Listen. Honey, the doctor can give you birth control, but you have to make sure you take it whenever he tells you to. Or you probably will get pregnant."

"I want a baby. Just not his."

"Wait a few years. It's not as easy as it seems."

"What do you mean?"

"I lost a lot of time to caring for my kids. They're wonderful, but I had to grow up really fast. I didn't have time to go to parties or to hang out with friends. I got kicked out by my dad. I moved in with Howard. Then when I had a miscarriage, I moved back in with my parents and I figured out just how much I had lost, how much I grew up."

"I love kids."

"I do too. And some day, you'll have one, I bet. I bet you'll be a great mother. but you just need to wait for now. And when you finally do have kids, you'll understand why it's good to wait."

"He raped me three times, every four hours," Abby said quietly, staring down at her hands. "I was chained to this pole between each time. He hit me around for a few minutes before. The only thing he ever said in English was that he liked girls with lots of fight. By the third time, I didn't fight at all, and it wasn't so bad. He left me then, but he dropped the key. I got it and managed to get away. Do you think he'll come after me?"


	2. Descriptions

Chapter 2: Descriptions

Lace walked into the office, throwing her keys down on her desk. She sighed before looking up at her partner. "Okay, I ran it and there are four matching cases, two each year. They're on the same date, and this is the first of the year. The next doesn't come for a while now. His type--blond, tall, skinny, but muscular, between fifteen and twenty-one. Um... Each victim was able to describe a few characteristics, but that's all, no full descriptions, not enough for an ID. All of them said Latino."

"Any matches on the DNA?"

"Warner's backed up, but she's trying to run it." Lace rolled her eyes with a smile when she saw Howard walk in. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Mark has a fever. I had to leave work. I'm on the way to drop them off at your mother's and I decided to drop you off some left over chicken I made," Howard answered.

"Liar."

Howard grinned. "So, maybe I'm a little... nosy, but what are you going to do about it?"

Lace arched an eyebrow. "What kind of chicken is it?"

"Your favorite! What else would I bring?"

"Is this apology food or real food?"

"Maybe it's both."

"What'd you do this time? Wreck my car? Drop the baby?"

"No. Nothing like that. I lied. I forgot to drop the kids off at day care. And I didn't go to work. Called in sick."

Lace laughed, throwing her head back. "Luckily, you're your own boss, so you can do that whenever you want to, right? And not get fired, I might add. Get out! Take 'em to Mom's and then go to work."

"And if I don't?"

Lace glared at him. "Our date tonight is canceled, and I'm moving in with Mom."

"An empty threat, but just the same, I'm going." Howard kissed her with a grin.

Lace glared at his back as he left, but she couldn't hide the smile from the rest of the unit. Elliot raised an eyebrow, glancing at Olivia. "How long have you been married?" he asked.

"Almost eleven years," Lace answered distantly, staring at the the file. "I'm trying to think of how we can get enough of a description to actually look him up. We have to narrow it down somehow. At least get enough so we're not pulling random people off the streets."

"Talk to the other victims?" Elliot suggested.

"No. It's a description. Already in their file and I don't think they'll remember much more." Lace sighed, throwing down the file. "We could..."

"Could what?"

"Well, all the victims gave about the same description, but some added a few things. We could stick them all together, and see what we come up with. Narrower weight than what Abby gave us. Height, eyes, we know, Latino, a tattoo on his arm of a dragon, all that. We could do it and probably get a little closer. Lot easier to narrow down the list."

Fin nodded. "When we catch the guy, his lawyer might have a problem with it, but his DNA will catch him. Let's try it out."

"Exactly." Lace jumped to her feet with a grin.


	3. Late Nights

Chapter 3: Late Nights

Fin walked into the office. It was after midnight, but he saw Lace was at her desk, laptop rested on her knees, and her feet on her desk. She looked up at him. "I thought you had a date tonight," he muttered.

"I canceled."

"And why's that?"

Lace set down her laptop with a sigh. "I guess you think I'm getting a little obsessed, huh?" She raised an eyebrow when Fin was silent. "Okay, fine. Listen. I was looking through men who fit the description of our guy. The DNA didn't have a match. Neither did the fingerprints. But what person doesn't use the internet once in a while? In New York at least? Right?"

Fin shrugged, nodding. "Yeah."

"Myspace and Facebook are two of the most popular sites. I was looking for guys that fit the description. Unfortunately, another popular thing on the internet is lying. But so far, I haven't gotten that far. The guys who actually have pictures, I have them bookmarked and maybe we'll eventually come up with something. One guy though, on the very first page, really got my attention, which is why I kept going all these hours. On the days of the rapes, he said he had his fun. Might be coincidence, might not be. Just the same, i thought I'd be careful."

"Coincidence. You know how many people have fun everyday?"

Lace smiled. "Specifically on the dates though? That's the only time he's ever said it." She shrugged, glaring at Fin when he gave her a look of disbelief. "Also, there's another victim I found from six years ago. It was a little different, but same guy. She said he has a scar on his face, and that's all she said. But it's something we didn't have. Bad teeth too. I added that to the others and we narrowed it down. However, bad teeth isn't a very good description. Missing tooth, rotting tooth, all that. The first victim was on the first date, and I think there are others that didn't report it. Or he murdered them. The other girls all talked about escaping."

"I say he planned to let 'em go. dropping the key doesn't sound like something a guy like that would do."

"Maybe not, but we can't assume stuff like that until we actually find a murdered victim."

"So..."

Lace grinned, leaping to her feet. "So... I ran by a friend at Homocide. He said there are another eleven cases matching. But the bodies of three were never claimed. They all are Latinas, young, around the same age, and their DNA matched. The bastard raped and murdered his own kids."

"Anything else?"

"Nope. that's it. The murders didn't get anywhere. No leads. It's like the guy just disappears between them. But I guess we'll figure out where he disappears to, right?"

"Or you will. Seems like you're running this case as far as I can tell."

Lace sat back down. "So why are you here? Nowhere to go?"

Fin shrugged. "And nothing to do when I get there really."

Lace nodded thoughtfully. "There's quite a few good bars here in New York. When I'm done here, which shouldn't be too much longer, I'm gonna go get a beer. Care to join me?"

"It's only your first day and you already need a drink?"

Lace glanced up at him. "Something like that, I guess. Or maybe life's just too much of a hell for me now that I just try to drown it out at night with a couple beers before I go home."

"Family problems?"

"No. Nothing like that. Family's great. Home's great. Just sleeping isn't the easiest thing in the world for me. It never has been. I'd rather not be able to think nights when I can't sleep." She let out a sigh, glancing around the unit office. "How did you last this long? It's my first day, and I don't know if I can stand it. but all these years..."

"Maybe because every once in a while, I can put somebody like that guy you're so obsessed with away, save one girl like Abby from being raped."

"But we never win here. We always lose. The damage is already done. We can't help them or anything. They'll be different for the rest of their lives. How can you stand that? To know you're working so hard, so diligently for nothing? I don't think I can do this much longer. I never wanted to be a cop anyway."

"Then why did you become one?"

"My dad was a cop. A damn good cop too. I saw how proud he was. I wanted him to be proud of me like that. But I'm not like that. I can't stand this. Not SVU. Maybe Homocide or Narcotics or something... somewhere I can make a difference, no matter how small it is."

"You can make a difference here. Abby left a message for you. She wants to go to lunch tomorrow."

Lace raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I know. But this isn't the worst case. She's in counseling, nobody knows who she doesn't want to know, her parents are being supportive." Lace laughed coldly. "You know how many things could go wrong and for her, it seems to be so much better. She's a lucky girl, if that's possible. But then again, what rape victim is lucky? We're--they're all... changed, different, ruined even. And the victims aren't just the kid in the hospital bed. I guess we are in some way too. I don't think I could ever go home to my kids after talking to Abby today. Or lay next to my husband again. People weren't meant to have that kind of pain, or face that kind of evil. And we can't make a difference in them. I hate that!"

"You should transfer then."

"No. Not yet. I have something I have to do first. And it won't be done until this son of a bitch is in jail."


End file.
